Wednesday 27 March 2013

After reading - Grace Darling

After reading#4:

William Darling took the woman and the man with the broken leg first. Imagine that you are saving people from a shipwrek, but your boat is small and you can only take four people. Which of these people do you save and why?

--->
I will save the follwoing people.

1. A mother and her young child
2. A doctor(Older woman)
6. A famous film star (young woman)
7. A teacher (Older woman)

I think a man has good strengh rather than a woman or a child. It's better to put the priority to woman and child.
However, I am also wondering if I should have chosen one of older man as young people has good strengh rather than older people...

Monday 18 March 2013

Monday morning ABC song!





Friday 15 March 2013

Here you are - Friday





Ireland - after reading


I’m interested in lots of places in Ireland.
They have big nature, different view of coast to Japan’s.
Since they have a long history, they have old castle, too.
They had been a battle for a long time because of religious problem, Protestant and Catholic.
It must be hard for them to insist and keep their faith during the time.
They are brave and amenability.
The battle is not over. It’s just lulled.

However, Ireland people naturally like peace and nature.
They have pub and entertainment like river dance.
They meant me that it’s worth to visit there. 

Posted for Yumi

Thursday 14 March 2013

What is it





Wednesday 13 March 2013

After reading - Chocolate

Dear King Charles

There are so many things to tell you about here in the Aztec city of Tenochtitlan. When I first arrived, their great ruler Moctezuma welcomed me with a wonderful drink called chocolatl.
The Aztecs always have this drink in beautiful small cups. It makes you feel very good and people say that Moctezuma drinks fifty cups of it every day.
It is made from the beans of a tree in the rainforest. These beans are important to the Aztecs and they use them as both food and money.
Moctezuma has a bank with millions of beans in it!
I think these beans could be very useful to us. I will try to learn all about them and tell you more in my next letter.

Yours
Hernan Cortes


Dear Mother

I have some very exciting news for you! Yesterday the most important cook in our kitchen suddenly became very ill, so Prince Metternich asked ME to make something special for the visitors to this house!
I thought a lot and I worked hard all night. In the end, I made a rich chocolate cake with some jam in the middle. Everybody loved it and Prince Metternich says he want to call it Sachertorte after me!
I will make it for you the next time I see you.

Love
Franz


Tuesday 12 March 2013

Ear rings from frankfurt - after reading

After reading 1

Jennifer is a quiet, sensible person, and she is a kind sister. Jennifer is sometimes cross with Richard, but she can never say “no” to him. Richard is Jennifer’s brother and he is fifteen years younger than her.

Wendy is Richard’s girlfriend. Richard has had a lot of girlfriends, but he thinks Wendy is very, very special. Wendy couldn’t find Richard after her birthday party, so she went to his sister to ask for help.

Kelly was Richard’s and Wendy’s boss, but he is a criminal. Kelly uses other people for criminal business, so he is inn prison now.
 

Friday 8 March 2013

February highlights - a slideshow

A month of snow flurries and icy roads, sniffles & sneezes, colds and cold feet!

But also a lovely month to make things - especially chocolates (for the teacher -we like!) and Valentine's cards for loved ones. I think you'll agree, we had a very nice time :)


Thursday 7 March 2013

We really do like milk!

My little class on Friday announced they really did not like milk...and we had to re-write their song a little bit, much to the chagrin of author Patrick Jackson! My class today were very much in favour of cow juice, and were more than happy to sing as loudly as they could.


I tried to change the lyrics again later, but they refused to sing "I really really really like Jim". Rotters!

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Season's greeting: "Sorry, we are leaving - next week"

It's that time of year again when families get shunted around the country at very little notice because daddy's company/employer decided so. Language schools dread the forlorn-looking mums who come into the school apologising profusely. What can you do?

The school manager immediately thinks loss of revenue & agonise; have to change the schedules again.

The teacher sighs and shakes their head; another long-term lanague learning project shot down in flames. A class dynamic now likely to flounder or the other girl in the class will quit without her pal to rely on...Maybe they'll get lucky and find another good school (do I know one near their new neighbourhood in Ehime prefecture??). As the teacher, I can't remember ever being asked to write up a student's learning history/profile for their next school. I could - I've been their teacher for the last xyz years and have put everything they can do (not just names of animals etc - all that invisible learning, "how to" stuff & strategies, confidence) on a plate for them. I'd love to be asked. I'd love to hand over their learning portfolio, all shiney & electronically unbattered & without bits missing. Maybe I invested to much in this class/student again?

So when the conversation in school turns to "So the other teacher can teach your 4 o'clock, half an hour later, and you can start a new toddlers class..." I want to scream. Of course, it will make sense because that solves a car parking issue, means another mum can bring younger son early for the new class on the same day (she likes my class style, too) & anyway I am good with the younger ones...all possibly true. But I have ambitions too, such as getting beyond single vowel phonics with a group & graduating from carpet-based lessons. I want to push my flashcard-eating nightmare class of 5 years ago into taking their YLE Flyers before they are eleven; they can sing & dance as well as read & spell after all.

Am I starting to rant? Sorry!

As a school owner for over a decade, I know we are looking at another sink-hole openning up beneath us at this time of year - been there, got the t-shirt & lost hair over it years ago. I am not emotionally attached to money; I know what comes around comes around; somebody else's prize learner will cross our threshold at random, with a bruised homework book if we are lucky. But that's it, isn't it? Luck. For my school, it's financial. For our students it's a crap shoot...Japan has no regulatory body to approve language schools & there are no industry-wide standards. Too often we are tarred with a dirty brush and assessed by the lowest common denominator. Price? Parking? Personality?

Monday 4 March 2013

Tomoro reveals a magician's secret - Snapguide

Tomoro came to class with a pack of cards and a magic trick; flummoxed me!

So we made this easy to follow "How to" on the Snapguide app on my iPhone. Very easy - please excuse the typo (mine!) btw.

Check out How to Do a Magic Trick by Jim George on Snapguide.

What do you think of Snapguide? I think it's really cool for explaining a sequence of events.

Friday 1 March 2013

I really hate milk!